Holiday Roundup- Part 2! Brunch with the Second Family!

A few days after Christmas, we gathered for the annual meetup with my mother's bestfriend/my second mother's family, this year for brunch!

My mom brewed some coffee, and everyone (except me, as I am not big on coffee) drank copiously. 

Barb looking on to the mass amounts of foods. There were lots of non-me food, but I made some GF chocolate chip waffles, and had some potatoes baked with olive oil, garlic, and oregano. Nom nom!

Barb's dog Lily was a big hit with the little kids! 

My niece enjoys some fresh orange slices! I too embibed in the fresh oranges. They were delicious!

Lily the Dog was also a fan with the adult guests at the brunch!

So there was that brunch.... we left the day after to travel down to the states to visit my grandmother! And we also visited a special place in New York City... More information tomorrow!

Holiday Roundup Day 1

It's time for my 

We (this being Myself, Matthew, my sister Shanta, and my mother) began the day at my mother's house in the country, getting up and dragging ourselves into clothes and then into the car, driving to town to open presents at Jolene's (another one of my sisters) house. We were greeted by this:

This is Jolene's youngest boy. (She and her husband Ryan have 2 boys, and a girl in the middle) He was pretty excited to see us!

So we began opening presents, with two helpers to hand them out:

Also, as an aside before I get into my "Great Present Awards" how cute are these pyjamas? 

My sister Shanta (seen here) and I loved the green dinosaur!

So anyway, here's a rundown of some great presents given this year:

I'm proud to say one of my gifts made the list, a mustache keychain that says "Hello there" in a vaguely George Takei style voice when you press a button on the side.

A baseball glove which was quite popular!

My grandmother gave Matthew and I a really super cute kitchen utensil themed clock! (The hour/minute/second hands are a fork knife and spoon!)

My sister Krista got an electric wok from Jolene!

Matthew got Settlers of Catan from Me!

My Neice got a dog robot thing from her parents. While the rest of the adults found it sort of creepy, she loved it! 

After presents we hung out for a little while longer, where my youngest nephew was in love with Matthew (he has been since the first time they met when he was a few months old!)

Cute

Cuter

Cutest

So we ventured back to my mother's where more family members were coming for Christmas dinner. After we all took a brief nap, it was up and at em for Dinner!

Getting Caught up (My nephew Ryan, Sister Cindy, and sister Trish)

I can see Infinity! (My Brother Pete)

So they all had turkey and such, and as the only vegan I had my special "Vegan Plate"

The Vegan Plate

What did it contain?

Carrots, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Mashed potatoes, Spinach Salad, and Tofu cooked in maple syrup. 

From another angle

After that we all slowly dispersed, bellies full, and Christmas Day was done.